Review and reflect

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"Of all the ways you could be spending your precious time and attention, it is very unlikely that you are currently spending it in the optimal way. The only path I know for figuring out a better way to spend your life is to sit and think. You simply have to carve out some time to think carefully about what you're doing, why you're doing it, and what you're really trying to achieve. Nobody stumbles into a well lived life. It has to be cultivated. Reflection and review are critical."

James Clear

Burn Some Dust, Here. Eat My Rubber! (Clark Griswold)

 

Yes, it's time to rewatch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Happy Christmas to the blogosphere.

You are not the cause of everything that happens to you, but you are responsible for how you respond to everything that happens to you (James Clear)

 

Everyone deserves a chance to walk with everyone else (Family of the Year)

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Competence is how good you are when there is something to gain. Character is how good you are when there is nothing to gain. People will reward you for competence. But people will only love you for your character.

Mark Manson

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, find out what it means to me (Aretha Franklin)

The Charlie Munger formula for career success:

• Don't work for anyone you don't respect and admire.  
• Work only with people you enjoy.

Sing with the might of the wind in your lungs. Do you hear me now? Do you hear me now? (Donovan)

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I'm finishing the school year with this piece from Marshall Manson on leadership, which I present without commentary.

For the next 6 weeks or so I'm on holiday so I will keep Baggy Trewsers ticking over with some favourite quotes and stray thoughts, then be back to it in February 2024, inshallah.

Marshall sums up his key principals for leadership and I agree wholeheartedly. 

I love how much integrity, people, relationships, collaboration, trust, common sense, and a sense of fun figure in his list.

Here they are:

Most important: Do the right thing for the right reasons. If that goes against someone’s rules, be ready to explain or face the consequences. Be as transparent as possible about your decisions and reasoning with anyone who shows interest.

Care about your people and look after them.

Create an environment where everyone feels comfortable expressing their view.

Be nice. Say yes until you absolutely can’t.

Recognise that real collaboration requires some confrontation and disagreement. Better to disagree openly than to be passive aggressive. Resolve disputes clearly and openly. Seek compromise and build common ground.

Communicate frequently and openly. Doing so builds trust and earns the benefit of the doubt when things get tricky.

Relentlessly apply common sense. Be pragmatic, even at the expense of perfect outcomes. A fast, good result is better than a slow, perfect one.

Develop and voice strong opinions, but hold them loosely. Be ready to revise or reverse views in light of better facts, deeper expertise, new circumstances, or a different perspective.

Be decisive and avoid the temptation to relitigate. But be ready to change course if an approach isn’t working.

Be enthusiastic and let others feel that enthusiasm. Getting people excited and believing in something they can do together is a powerful motivating force.

Have fun and create an environment where everyone else can have fun.

Be curious and reward curiosity. Innovation and great ideas are impossible without curiosity.

Teach, but without pomposity. And encourage others to be teachers.

Share everything: Ideas, work, learnings, clients, food, chocolate, and especially credit. Encourage others to do the same and reward them for doing so.

Recognition is a powerful motivator, often far more powerful than money.
Keep the spotlight where it belongs: on the people doing the work. Show appreciation early and often.

Avoid jargon. Making an organisation accessible makes it possible for more people to offer views.

Follow the rules studiously about 95% of the time, especially on the non-negotiable stuff, in order to earn latitude to bend or break them in the handful of cases where doing so would make a big difference.

Measure a few key things that matter rather than trying to measure everything. Spreadsheets are time consuming and soul destroying. Key numbers and measurable underlying forces must command focus, but exponential growth of spreadsheets comes at the expense of exponential growth for the business itself.

This is the way. 

I'll get by somehow (John Lee Hooker)

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Somewhere, there is the ideal soil for growing mangoes. Or the best possible wave for surfing. Or the most romantic sunset for a proposal.

But it’s not right here and it’s not right now.

Our success has a lot to do with how we dance with conditions that aren’t quite perfect.

Seth Godin

There's too many people who ain't smiling (Allan Clarke)

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The professional loves her work. 

She is invested in it wholeheartedly.

But she does not forget that the work is not her.

(The Art Of War)

Will you let 'em out? Will you let 'em in? Will you ever know when it's the tipping point (Tears For Fears)

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I'm a big advocate of the brain dump. 

It's number 61 on Thomas Oppong's list (100 habits for a great life): 

Use brain dump to declutter your mind and thoughts.

It's not for everyone, but I think I have the kind of compartmentalised brain that happily shuts down once a brain dump has taken place. 

So, this rule works for me. Smiley face.

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now (Led Zeppelin)

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Am I on the wrong trajectory? Am I working harder on the wrong thing?

Woh. Some great questions there. inspired by some bold statements from the ever reliable James Clear.

"Exerting more effort doesn't help if you're on the wrong trajectory.

- Working harder on the wrong thing just wastes more time.

- Learning more from a biased source will lead you further from the truth.

- Doubling down on a toxic relationship only sets you up for more headaches.

Before you try harder, make sure you are walking a path that leads where you want to go."

Sometimes in life, sometimes through circumstances beyond your control, you find yourself walking a path that leads you astray. Maybe your values or morals are being compromised and maybe you can't see it and no one calls you on it.

But maybe you can, or maybe they do.

As Robert Plant, the wonderful philosopher and lead singer of Led Zeppelin says:

Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run there's still time to change the road you're on.

Forget about peak performance.

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"Forget about peak performance. Would your results improve if you simply focused on being reliable in the normal moments?

Show up when it's easy to skip. Do the fundamentals and do them well. And so on.

Before you make it complicated, remember there are always simple improvements waiting to be made."

James Clear

When we walk away from the storm's roar, then I will be afraid no more (Big Country)

King Lear Act 3, Scene II

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!

After a while you start to smile, now you feel cool (The Beatles)

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Thomas Oppong's habit # 55 for a great life is: 

What are your repeatable morning triggers for a good day? Don’t ever start a day without knowing what to do. How you start your day determines how the rest of the day turns out. “Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it.” Richard Whately said.

My repeatable triggers are:

• Arrive at school at the same time each day 
• Do a few chores like unloading the dishwasher, filling up the billy and making a cuppa - that all helps cleanse the palate and adjust from home mode to job mode
• Check my schedule for the day and pre-brief the day with the first staff on site
• Choose a positive quote to finish the staff ten minute Lean meeting
• Head off to do duty at the front of the school - greeting parents and students at the drop off zone and making sure the bikers and skaters who live locally are safely into the school grounds.
• An extra bonus would be publishing that day's blogpost and reading the Morning Brew on my phone while waiting for Lean to start.

If all that goes smoothly I've had a solid start to the day. 

One day at a time is good for you (John Lennon)

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Number 54 on Thomas Oppong's list of 100 habits for a great life is this:

Replace perfect with good enough. Instead of waiting for an ideal outcome, focus on making progress daily. One action at a time is how you make progress.

And, you know what? I think he's right.

From the dark end of the street to the bright side of the road (Van Morrison)

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I am a naturally optimistic, glass half full kind of guy. So much so, that it seems to exasperate some of my colleagues at times.

So I had to think hard when confronted by this piece of James Clear wisdom:

"Optimism early, pessimism in the middle, optimism late.

Your starting position has to be somewhat optimistic or you'll talk yourself out of getting started. Believing in what you are about to do does not guarantee success, but a lack of belief can prevent it.

Once you've committed, pessimism becomes useful. Question things. Find holes in your plan. Hold yourself to a high standard and try to identify your mistaken beliefs before they become your misplaced actions.

After you've spent some time troubleshooting, it's back to optimism again. Nothing will ever be perfect, but you have to act anyway. Progress requires the courage to forge ahead despite the inevitable obstacles."

It's that pessimism in the middle bit that I had to reflect upon long and hard.

I tend to rely on others to find the holes (work colleagues, my wife) because the holes don't naturally appear to me.

At our campus we are currently in the middle of a building project and my planning to move to the hall while that's happening was all about how to make things work, rather than what could go wrong.

We've successfully navigated a tricky start to that because we adjusted (yes, the ole pivot) as a team. Having a variety of different looks, including a real couple of pessimists on the team, really helped.

I'd struggle to do that myself, but with the help of others we find balance in the force.

You better you better you bet (The Who)

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At the moment in my school context, there is quite a lot of discussion around appropriate work place environments for teachers.

Brief context: in a fundamental change, all staff on a non-contact must now work in the Secondary School students' Learning Centre (a purpose built space where students do their zoom lessons and use as a study space - in our version of that it's currently temporary accommodation in the gym as our Learning Centre is being remodeled).

Let's delve into this discussion, keeping in mind the advice from Thomas Oppong: Design a work environment that works for you. Are you more productive in silence? Do you work better with white noise? Experiment and design a unique work environment just for you.

Teachers are free to use any space within the Learning Centre zones they wish. The clearly defined zones: quiet areas, collaborative, semi-collaborative.

Some of the culturally centred reasons/aims behind this move: to replicate working environments that students will go into after they leave school; to role model good practice; to improve relationships between Primary teachers and Secondary students.

I've spent this first week of term thinking about effective use of space in our Learning Centre. It's a work in progress but so far, and not surprisingly, I've found I need to be based in the semi-collaborative zones when actively supervising/coaching, but in a quiet zone when on a non-contact.

For some of the teachers, it will also take time to adjust to this new mode of working but, already, after one week, I am seeing positive benefits from this approach and being in a larger space like our gym has already improved the atmosphere in the Learning Centre.

I do understand that some teachers will feel that this idea cramps their style or needs, in that they need a completely silent space, or else they need specialist resources or equipment. 

I would hope they would give this new idea a chance, but I also hope that common sense will prevail and that we can move into a higher trust model where professionals are trusted to make these decisions for themselves.

Let's get into physical, let me hear your body talk (Olivia Newton-John)

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Time to return to Thomas Oppong's 100 Habits. Here are five more:

Invest at least 30 minutes every day doing a side hobby you find relaxing — you can schedule it in the evenings or early mornings. For me it's blogging. I aim to publish one post a day on my blogs, on a revolving basis. It helps me get some perspective and I love the discipline involved.

Start a pre-sleep ritual — remove all digital distractions and read a physical book instead. Reading a book before bed prepares your mind to wind down. I do this for ten to 15 minutes each night. Drives my wife nuts but I need it.

Systemise the same decisions you make every day: how you work, what to eat, what to wear, how to start your day, etc. It saves brain energy for high level or meaningful work. A systems-first mentality changes everything. I get that this is not for everyone, but I fully support this one - my clothes are ready the night before (shirt ironed), my morning work routine is all set to go (same commute, same timings, and so on).

Use at least 10% of your time (daily) to read. The return is exponential. Warren Buffet spends 80% of his day reading. Strong reading habit improves how you think, decide, work, invest or build a better life. I read every day - nowhere near 80% though, even on holidays. I'm lucky, I've always been a reader. I've tried digital a few years ago but I quickly went back to physical books.

Move your body every morning. Spend a few minutes of your morning to stretch. A good physical shape has a massive impact on your brain health, productivity and total wellbeing. My back has been sore for some time so I have 5 exercises I need to do each day to help improve it. 

Expectations

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"When you're in the middle of the work, set your expectations high. It's unlikely your performance will exceed the standard you set for yourself. High expectations encourage you to keep reaching and fulfill your potential.

Once the work is done, release yourself from your expectations. The fastest way to ruin a good outcome is to tell yourself it's not good enough. Your expectations dictate your happiness more than your results.

Expectations can be helpful as a motivator and unhelpful as a measuring stick. Now that the work is done you can rest easy knowing you tried your best. You've already won."

James Clear

Meeting bloat

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Joe Allen, co-author of Suddenly Hybrid: Managing the Modern Meeting, says that “meeting bloat” means managers spend about three-quarters of their time in, or preparing, for meetings. 

“Managers need to say, ‘Do I really need this meeting?’ And then cancel it.”

Empathy

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We have a two week study break now until John Lennon's birthday rolls around. So until then you'll be getting some stop gap favourite quotes.

Here's today's quote that I'm pondering:

When things don’t work, it’s not helpful to try to minimize the impact. In fact, you’re far more likely to make progress if you remind the customer just how much it mattered to you to get it right, and how you feel about letting them down.

Empathy is a first step toward connection.

Seth Godin

For long you live and high you fly, and smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry, and all you touch and all you see Is all your life will ever be (Pink Floyd)

 

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My three tips for when something comes at you from left field:

1. Who knows what's good or bad. Roll with it, go with the flow.
2. Smile. Worse things happen at sea! Sometimes plan b works out better than plan a.
3. Get some perspective - go for a walk. Breathe.

One good day does not mean you can coast tomorrow (James Clear)

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Thomas Oppong has created 100 habits for a great life.

One hundred. That's a lot to take on. So I'll pick a few that I think are worth passing on (my responses in itallics). More in the next post.

Email is the biggest time suck. If you don’t plan to deal with incoming emails, you will spend all your time reacting to what others want. Set aside time to deal with it. Period 1 in the LC works for me - the students are generally quietly getting into their day, and so am I.

For better energy and strong concentration, choose a healthy breakfast (whole grains, protein and healthy fats). With that in mind I've recently changed my habit away from sugary cereals to Weetbix - 97% wholegrain wheat. I have the cholesterol lowering version.

When you start work, remove all distractions from your work environment before starting actual work –noise, notifications, email tabs, etc. Assume focus or productive mode with calming music. This jazz piano playlist usually gets a workout from me in the hour I have at work before anyone else arrives. This Mozart meditation album is good too.

Schedule time for nature walks — even just 10 minutes outside and close to more trees can do wonders for your mood. I aim for 22 minutes at lunchtime each day (the time it takes for me to walk around the sports park next to the campus). It does wonders!

End your day with a tidy desk ready for the next day, so you don’t have to spend your morning getting ready for work. I don't have an office - wherever my device and diary are is where I work so it's easy to pack away each day.

When you're a charmer people respond; they can't see the hidden agenda you got going on (Aimee Mann)

 

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James Clear on daily routines:

"Many people view their habits and routines as obstacles or, at the very least, obligations to get through. Making the morning coffee, driving your kids to the next activity, preparing the next meal—we often see our routines as chores to be completed.

But these are not moments to be dismissed. They are life. Making coffee can be a peaceful ritual—perhaps even a fulfilling one—if done with care rather than rushed to completion. It’s about the amount of attention you devote to these simple moments, and whether you choose to appreciate them or bulldoze through them on the way to the next task.

Find the beauty and joy in your daily rituals and you will find beauty and joy in your daily life. To love your habits is to love your days, and to love your days is to love your life."

I'm very much a routine guy and part of my routines at work involve loading and unloading the dishwasher, topping up the hot water urn, emptying the staff room rubbish bin, and putting chairs up for the cleaners on Friday afternoons.

Yes, I'm also the Campus Principal but I have no problem following these routines.

As I explained to my wife when she visited the campus on Friday afternoon - I'm always the first to arrive at school in the morning. Why would I not unload the dishwasher? I'm often the last to leave so topping up the water and putting the dishwasher on are just sensible routines.

But I also enjoy the routine.

I like being mindful while I'm doing them - I have set places where certain plates and cups go, and I put up the chairs in a certain order each time.

I certainly find beauty and joy in those routines.

Being larger than the situation

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James Clear: 

A valuable skill in life is to be larger than the situation.

When you're feeling stressed or rattled, the situation is consuming you. It feels bigger and more important than it needs to be. This is when your emotions are likely to get the best of you.

But when you are larger than the situation, you can mentally "step outside and above it." Yes, there are problems to be solved. Yes, you need to take action. But the chaos is happening externally and you are still in the driver's seat internally. You're in control of the moment, the moment is not in control of you."

James is onto something here.

The idea that the chaos is happening externally, and you are still in the driver's seat internally is a very powerful one.

Worth passing on in fact.

Quality is much better than quantity...one home run is much better than two doubles (Steve Jobs)

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Steve Jobs' baseball analogy is very apt. I agree with him.

It's better to get one home run success, than two almost successes. A double, or two-base hit, in baseball is making it to second base, so, in effect - half way, but without any end result.

In the business world, it often appears that it is all about quantity; about making sales, to the exclusion of all else. As many sales as possible. obviously. Sales figures equal rewards in many businesses. More more more.

In education there is a lot of satisfaction around quality: around getting a student their stretch goal; or watching a student have an important learning moment. That might be an 'achieve' grade in a unit standard, or a sporting success, or even an 'oh, I get it' moment.

Yesterday, at our school assembly, a student with a severe genetic disorder read a poem and that moment was a brilliant home run that I will remember for a long time, but it won't figure on any stats.

It is more human to laugh at life than to lament it (Seneca)

While visiting Havelock North and browsing in Wardini's bookstore with my father-in-law on the weekend, I picked up a copy of The Daily Stoic. 

You can read up on the stoics here if you are so inclined.

Yes, I'm a sucker for these daily meditation type books. This one has a quote and a brief commentary for each day of the year.

The Seneca quote I've used above is lifted from a lengthier passage discussing the impulse to either laugh or cry at events.

I'm pretty sure I've explained before how my tendency to laugh or smile at events (and people) can get me into sticky situations. I really can't help it, and most times it defuses the situation. Most times.

I would much rather be that way. It's something I have no control over though - it's just me.

While undergoing that stress with the scanner last week, there wasn't much else to do but see the funny side. The randomness of the fault was a real cosmic joke. 

As my colleague, Lise and I tried in vain to troubleshoot the printer's stubborn refusal to scan documents correctly it eventually became apparent that we had to smile and walk away. Or cry.

Crying wasn't an option!

If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything (Gordon A. Eadie)

I revisited a post this week which looked at ten must-know career skills.

These were the ten skills/things: 

1. Constantly adapt to technology
2. Embrace diversity
3. Be a life-long learner
4. Practice impeccable integrity
5. Be a self-starter
6. Demonstrate personal discipline
7. Prioritise and evaluate daily
8. Be adaptable
9. Think creatively and innovatively
10. Have the 'can-do' attitude.

Number 4 is my favourite thing - integrity. 

I also love that it uses impeccable as an adjective (impeccable: in accordance with the highest standards of propriety; faultless)

Once you lose that, it's a slippery slope going downhill fast.

Aspire to serve, you will serve enthusiastically (Hsing Yun)

 

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A few crucial reminders came this week via Hsing Yun's 366 Days of Wisdom.

The aspire to serve one above, plus:

Aspire to walk, you will go far.

+

The secret to good health is to eat less and walk more.

+

The secret to Dharma joy is to let go and be at ease.

The first cut is the deepest (Cat Stevens)

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This quote from James Clear almost works for me:

"First or last?

Sometimes the first move is the most important. The first set in the gym. Now you're working out. The first sentence. Now you're writing. The first call. Now you're in the game.

Other times, the last move is the most important. The last brick. Now the building is built. The last line of code. Now the app works. The last round of revisions. Now you can ship it.

What do you need to focus on right now? First or last? Do you need to start or finish?"

I get it but I don't think it's an either/or situation.

The first and last track on a record are equally important but for different reasons. One sets up the mood, grabs attention, hooks the listener and the other seals the deal, finishes on a climax, leaves you breathless with wonder and exhilaration or wanting more.

Take the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album for instance. The first track could only be Sgt. Pepper's. The last could only be A Day In The Life.

In my opinion, the same holds true for books, films, poems, essays and projects that are undertaken.

The start has to be planned, worked on, drafted, polished for maximum impact and the conclusion has to satisfy in some way.

Literature and film are full of things that have a weak start or ending. 

Both are crucial.

As I was motorvatin' over the hill I saw Maybellene in a Coupé De Ville (Chuck Berry)

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According to Jere Brophy, motivation to learn is a competence acquired "through general experience but stimulated most directly through modeling, communication of expectations, and direct instruction or socialization by significant others (especially parents and teachers)."

We are currently exploring plans for teaching staff to be more of a presence in our Learning Centres: venue for where Year 9 to 13 students do their zoom lessons and study. We also have separate Learning Centres for primary students and middle school students (Years 7 and 8).

It means that all teachers will need to take their non-contact (a.k.a. release) periods in one of those Learning Centres wherever appropriate - sometimes confidential work or work involving specialist technology may mean a different choice of venue.

The decision has been made at a higher level than me, and I dare say there are other potential factors involved, but it also seems that Brophy's thoughts are an important component.

I want to fly like Superman (The Kinks)

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Retirement has been on my mind of late, especially as a member of the public yesterday made a telling statement.

Before and after school, I do a duty at the gate - to get there I have to walk down part of a public walkway. Because I'm there every day I see some regular dog walkers, bikers, and others doing their perambulations of the Sports Park next to the campus. We nod at each other, say - good morning, or chat.

Yesterday I walked back to the campus with a lady who chatted to me about her recent biking adventures with her husband.

 When we got to the gate leading to the campus she said - have a great day. I said - you too!

She said - I'm retired, I can do what I want. It's so great.

Grrr. Frussin russin!! I could have killed her!

How many miles will it take to see the sun (Leon Russell)

Leadership examples abound in the FIFA Women's World Cup (to which I am currently addicted as the Strine/Nu Zild time frames are spot on for nightly peak viewing).

I'm loving watching the way coaches interact with players and how players interact with each other - clear leaders emerge, or don't.

Seems to me that on some teams there are some natural leaders, who the women follow. 

In one game I watched a young goalkeeper explaining to her much older, more experienced team mates, some tactical points. And they listened!

Teams without natural leaders don't tend to stick around for long in these kinds of competitions.

Mission: Impossible 7

Yesterday, my wife and I went to see the latest Mission: Impossible movie (it's great - go see it) and I have been wondering today, about Ethan Hunt's management style.

He seems to have mellowed with age. Zero anger, more thoughtful quiet acceptance in this one. In a few scenes he even avoids providing exposition and listens to his team articulate what to do next and he nods agreement. Loved that.

He is very people oriented in this film - he trusts his team! When Benji sends him up a mountain to ultimately catch a train (great excuse for a terrific Tom Cruise stunt), Ethan asks Benji what he should do next and basically Benji has a mini meltdown and says he's stressed!

Ethan kind of shrugs and rather than berate his co-worker, get angry, or complain about his stress levels, purposefully heads up to the top of the cliff to do his stunt. Loved that too.

His transformational leadership style is very inspiring.